Monterey stabbing suspect 'took the wrong path,' his mother says

Joshua Claypole was known as a talented, funny and loving Big Sur kid until his life took an abrupt dive a few years ago.

Friends and family say he fell heavily into the local drug scene and thoroughly "changed as a person," as one friend put it.

Claypole's fall ended in tragedy on Wednesday, when he was arrested on suspicion of killing a well-loved taxi driver from Salinas who worked for years in Monterey.

Monterey police Lt. Leslie Sonné said detectives found no evidence that Claypole, 20, and Daniel Garcia Huerta ever met before the 44-year-old Yellow Cab driver picked up his fare at a Wells Fargo bank in Carmel's Crossroads shopping center. Police say they are at a loss as to motive, but they are investigating whether a robbery occurred.

"Poor Mr. Huerta was the cab driver who picked up Mr. Claypole as a fare," said Sonné.

Police said they don't know where Claypole wanted to go, but the cab pulled into an Enterprise Rent-A-Car lot on Del Monte Avenue about 1 p.m.

It was there, police say, Garcia Huerta was fatally stabbed.

Several people saw the attack and said Garcia Huerta appeared to be alive when police arrived, pulled him from the cab and administered CPR.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers said the attacker ran to the front of a McDonald's corporate office at 1100 Del Monte Ave., where he carjacked a red pickup from a 40-year-old Salinas woman, who wasn't injured.

About 15 minutes after the stabbing, the carjacked truck was stopped by a swarm of police at Del Monte and Broadway Avenue in Seaside. There, police called Claypole out of the truck to surrender. After emerging with hands raised, he followed instructions and slowly knelt to the ground, when a group of officers rushed to handcuff him.

Sonné said Peninsula police officers appreciated cooperation from witnesses as well as residents and local businesses inconvenienced while streets were closed off as crime scenes.

"The support was nice, definitely," she said. "It was across the board."

Sonné said officers found the murder weapon "with the suspect."

Detectives interviewed Claypole at the Monterey Police Department before he was booked into county jail on suspicion of murder and carjacking, she said.

Front-office employees at the department knew Garcia Huerta because he would come to the station to file his taxi permit.

The employees were "pretty upset yesterday," Sonné said. "They said he was a very nice man."

Staff members who spoke Spanish had to interpret as detectives spoke to Garcia Huerta's family, she said.

He was a "kind-hearted, hard-working cab driver," said Yellow Cab of Salinas co-owners Michael and John Cardinalli. He worked for the company since July.

A tearful niece who spoke on KION-TV backed up the assessments, saying Garcia Huerta was a loving husband and father of two who "never had problems with anyone."

Growing up in Big Sur

Those close to Claypole say he was once that kind of person, too.

"He's a beautiful being that took a wrong path," his mother, Silvia Guersenvaig, said Thursday, adding she was too saddened and exhausted to say more.

Photos of the two on Joshua's Facebook page show happier times of mother and son posing with the beach as a backdrop.

Claypole was close to his father and siblings, who still live in their native Argentina, friends said, and visited them often.

Guersenvaig is a licensed masseuse and teacher at Big Sur's Esalen Institute, said the center's website. Like her, the parents of former schoolmate Tyler Nelson worked at Esalen for about 30 years, Nelson said, and the two boys attended the institute's preschool together.

Both families lived about five miles from Esalen, he said.

"As a kid, (Joshua) was always the troublemaker, but never in my wildest dreams could I imagine him doing this," Nelson said.

Their friendship "dropped off years ago when he started getting into bad drugs," Nelson said. "He is just the type of person whose body and mind cannot handle any substance in their body. Once he started getting into serious drugs, he changed as a person."

A friend who asked not to be named described Claypole as part of a group of "very level-headed, talented and loving individuals" who loved skateboarding, art and escaping on weekends to explore "the wonders of our home" during their middle and early high school years from 2004 to 2009.

"At this time in his life, he was friends with everyone in school and the community of Big Sur," the friend said. "Josh was known for his incredible sense of humor — he used to make me bust up in laughter in the middle of class till I would start crying."

He said Claypole was a talented actor who starred in most of the drama team's acts at school.

Claypole is also heavily into music, friends said, evidenced by his posted remixes online.

"He was known for his ability to 'beat box' like a professional," the friend said, referring to the art of using voice and mouth to mimic the sounds of drums and other instruments. "He would literally come up with full-length songs with different beats all out of memory. It was amazing."

Drug problem

But then, the friend said, Claypole and a few others got caught up in the "huge drug problem in this area amongst young people."

"It seems that not a lot of people are aware of it, but drug abuse in this area was huge back then and was a turning point for a lot of kids my age. ... And I'm not talking about just marijuana and alcohol, I mean everything you can think of."

The friend said he believes drugs "created a demon" inside Claypole.

"When I knew him, he would never even consider causing any pain to anyone. He has a huge heart deep down and was such a positive influence in my life." The friend said his heart goes out to Joshua, his mother and to Garcia Huerta and his family.

Another former schoolmate said he knew Claypole during the darker days.

By the time they were in high school, said Lyle Southall, Claypole was getting into trouble for "graffiti, fighting and ditching school."

Claypole would disappear from the scene and resurface, only to be arrested for driving under the influence and later wrecking a car, Southall said.

In 2011, a year after he was pictured as a junior in Carmel High School's yearbook, police and court records show Claypole had repeated alcohol-related run-ins with police. He was arrested Sept. 9 on suspicion of drunken driving after an accident at Pearl and Tyler streets and was arrested on the same charge near Fisherman's Wharf on Sept. 16, the records show.

The next day, he was cited for being a minor in possession of alcohol on Ocean Avenue in Carmel. A month later he was arrested in Pacific Grove and later charged with violating probation.

But Southall said the most serious descent began after Claypole resurfaced in Big Sur last summer, "when you could tell things were really out of control with him."

Southall said Claypole harassed him at his job, stole and wrecked his camera and threatened to come after him with an air gun "and a blade."

A few weeks later, Southall said, Claypole was beat up after hanging around a Big Sur business, "causing trouble and not leaving."

"So he had a rough few days and couldn't really show his face in Big Sur anymore," he said.

Motive unknown

Now Claypole is in Monterey County Jail, held in lieu of $1.1 million bail. Officials there said late Thursday he was housed in a regular cell and was not on suicide watch, despite news reports to the contrary.

Earlier Thursday, police forwarded preliminary information from their investigation to the District Attorney's Office, Sonné said, and on Friday planned to send even thicker files.

If police determine a robbery occurred, the case could become eligible for the death penalty.

While Claypole's downward spiral has the markings of a too-familiar modern tragedy, "even more sad," said his old friend Tyler Nelson, "is the lives he changed with this horrible act."

Donations for the Garcia Huerta family can be sent to Yellow Cab Company, Box 1234, Salinas 93902.